Carling Cup Round 1

United 0 Reading 1

United boss Paul Buckle had nothing but praise for his team despite their last gasp defeat at the hands of Championship side Reading in their Carling Cup Round tie at Plainmoor. A Grzegorz Rasiak goal in added on time at the end of extra time was the only difference between the two teams and Bucks delighted with his player's efforts: ''I couldn't be happier with the performance. We made some great chances; I thought Elliot Benyon was awesome tonight up top. Elliot's runs were excellent, I thought he had scored with his run across the area and the shot ends up hitting the post. If that had gone in we would thoroughly have deserved it.

''Every player was different class tonight, they really were. I can't stop smiling, I wouldn't lie to the players of we weren't quite at it but we were outstanding with and without the ball. I'm sure Reading know that they have been in a game.''

Bucks was in a jovial mood when asked about the record run of minutes without conceding being broken by Reading: ''It doesn't count, I think you will find that it is ninety minutes only and doesn't include extra time, there must be someone out there who can confirm that! We are just going to carry it on anyway.''

There was a dramatic looking moment immediately after Reading scored when the wall behind the goal collapsed and Bucks was relieved that there didn't seem to be any injuries: ''There was a worrying moment after the goal was scored when I think the wall went over so we hope that no-one was hurt.

''This was a fantastic cup tie and a fabulous advert for Torquay United. Congratulations must go to Reading but again we have shown how good we can be. We had a young forward line out there tonight who were all outstanding and we were so impressive from front to back.

''with this being a Wednesday night we could have done without the extra time leading in to the Lincoln match on Saturday but as long as we got a performance like that the players will be looking forward to training tomorrow not worrying about Saturday, I know I certainly am. There is nothing to be downhearted about, we weren't expected to win tonight although we thought deep down that we could go through this tie and you saw that in the performance. We will take this into another tough game on Saturday at Lincoln and long may we continue to play the way we are at the moment.''

Paul also commented on the return of Wayne Carlisle to the club: ''Wayne has agreed to rejoin us which is great; we sat down with him and had a good chat. He looks like a new player, he had a lot of injury problems last season but he is back now and fit. A lot of credit must go to Damian Davey who has worked very well with Wayne. We are delighted to have Wayne back with us.''

The tragic passing away of Exeter City player Adam Stansfield from cancer was something close to Paul and he gave his thoughts on the sad news: ''The news of Adam was absolutely shocking, the players wore black armbands tonight to show their respect for Adam and his family and our thoughts go out to them. This is terrible news, he as a fantastic lad, I had the pleasure of working with him and you wouldn't see a harder worker in training or in games. We actually tried to sign him here at Plainmoor but it was no surprise that Exeter wouldn't let him go.''